All right. Here's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I pushed into table #37, an Omaha High-Low (Eight or better) $10-$20 game with a $15 kill (i.e. the stakes go up if a player scoops a big pot.) Omaha is a notoriously difficult game to deal. OK, it's not all that difficult for an experienced dealer, but for us rookies, there is a lot going on. You have to count the well when you get to the table, make change and take a $4 rake every hand during the play of the hand and stack the pot (with your one free hand) every hand because High-Low means that the highest hand gets half the pot and the lowest hand gets half the pot. Because each player is dealt four cards it is also possible that one player can make both the highest and the lowest hands using different combinations of cards from their hand and the board. All this means is that as a dealer, there is a lot to do and a lot to think about. Easy for a veteran, somewhat tougher for a rookie.
The other problem for us rookies is that sometimes players get a little testy because they want the game to go fast, especially if they are the kind of player that uses a tight strategy to make money at the game. A tight player only plays the best starting hands and plays them very aggressively with the idea that they will push their edge, and make money because they'll win big pots and just fold away the rest of them. Because they only play one out of five or six hands, they often "encourage" the dealer to move the game along as they fold and fold awaiting a good starting hand.
Last night, when I arrived at table #37, the previous dealer had left the well a mess. Typically, the chips in the well are neatly organized. Chips are counted in stacks of twenty and plastic spacers called "lammers" are used to separate the stacks. This makes it easy to count. A stack of white chips is twenty dollars, a stack of blue - forty and a stack of red is a hundred. This well was a mess. On the left was a big stack of 50 or 60 white chips, there were two partial stacks of blue and the reds were uneven. The dealer is responsible for the money. Dealers have to make up shortages out of their pocket and can be terminated if their well is found consistently short.
So I sat down and dug in my heels because I knew it was going to take a few minutes to straighten this out. The player in seat 8 was impatient. "Come on, deal!" "Let's go." "What are you doing dealer? Let's get the cards out." His harassment made me want to take even greater care straightening out this well. I lammered off the chips and got it where there was only a single "working" stack of white, blue and red chips and then counted them quickly and seeing that they were right (or maybe two dollars over). His harassment continued. Although he folded four out of five hands he followed all the action. "Stack that pot up." "Come on." "Let's go" "That's it, split 'em up. Do it!" "Wait! - No! - He get's half the low. Come on dealer, split 'em up!" "What's the problem?" "DEAL."
He finally plays a hand at the end of my half hour session. It is a big one. It is raised and re-raised before and after the flop with four players in it. It was likely the largest pot of my session. The board read 5-6-K-J-9 with all four suits showing. The lady in seat 3 shows her cards and declares, "Straight!" with a proud smile. She held a 7 and an 8 in her hand. Two others mucked but seat 8 just sat and stared at his cards. Then he stared at the board, shaking his head seemingly trying to figure out where he went wrong. Still shaking his head he slowly stood up putting his hand over his cards and stared at the board some more. Then he picked up his cards again, looked at them and showed them to someone standing behind him, said something and then turned back to the game, looked at the board and stared at his cards. Everybody at the table was rolling their eyes and shaking their head waiting for him to show or muck his cards.
"They're not gonna change." said the dealer.
Oops. That's not really the right thing to say in this situation. That's a smart-ass comment from an irritated dealer giving back a little needle to a guy who he thinks might have deserved it.
He erupted into a tirade. I didn't really listen to what he was saying. I just worked on getting this huge pot pushed over to the winner, collecting the cards and setting up to leave the table. "New dealer coming in! Thank you all for your tokes and good luck to everybody."
After I moved to the next table where I had to again straighten out a well that was a wreck, I was relieved early by a dealer telling me that I needed to go talk to the Dealer Coordinator i.e. the boss. Oops.
"What happened?"
After telling my story, he assured me that I had not handled the situation in the best manner and that I should not let it happen again. He gave me the option to leave or to deal some more at another table, but it was after 1 AM and I had been there since 6. I took the option to clock out.
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